Menlo School teaching football players rugby-style tackling in hopes of curtailing head injuries

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Tackling coach, Gene Mountjoy, uses Maklan Badger (16) to demonstrate his approach to rugby-style tackling techniques during a team practice at Menlo School in Menlo Park, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 13, 2014. The team has adopted rugby-style tackling in response to the growing concern about concussions and other head injuries while playing football. (Gary Reyes/Bay Area News Group)

Charlie Pinkus (51) applies a rugby-style tackle on Gregor Yock (52) during a tackling drill during practice at Menlo School in Menlo Park, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 13, 2014. The team has adopted rugby-style tackling in response to the growing concern about concussions and other head injuries while playing football. (Gary Reyes/Bay Area News Group)

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Jordan Pluchar (14) is tackled by Jack Marren (21), center, under the watchful eye of coach, Gene Mountjoy, right, during a tackling drill at Menlo School in Menlo Park, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 13, 2014. The team has adopted rugby-style tackling in response to the growing concern about concussions and other head injuries while playing football. (Gary Reyes/Bay Area News Group)

Maklan Badger (16), right, practices a rugby-style tackle on Chris Crouch (55) during Menlo School varsity football practice in Menlo Park, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 13, 2014. The team has adopted rugby-style tackling in response to the growing concern about concussions and other head injuries while playing football. (Gary Reyes/Bay Area News Group)

ATHERTON — With rising awareness about head injuries in football, Menlo School has taken a unique step to teach players its preferred method of tackling:

It hired a rugby coach.

Gene Mountjoy, a rugby coach at Santa Clara University, is the tackling coach at Menlo. He teaches a shoulder-leverage style of tackling — head to the side, shoulder to the midsection.

“Our goal is to keep the head out of the game and be as safe as possible,” Menlo coach Mark Newton said. “I definitely think we’ve seen progress in cutting the concussion rate.”

At the start of a recent practice, Mountjoy separated players into groups of two and went over the fundamentals of rugby tackling. “Hands up, elbows in and sight the target,” Mountjoy boomed out. “Right shoulder, hit the left side. Left shoulder, hit the right side.”

Menlo players have adapted to the techniques taught by Mountjoy, who was hired before this season.

“I like it a lot,” linebacker Macklin Badger said. “With this, there is no strain on the neck.”

Pete Carroll, coach of the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, believes in rugby-style tackling so much that he released an instructional video last summer that has been distributed to high school and youth programs around the country.

“It’s a system we have been teaching and utilizing for the last four years with the Seahawks and since our days at USC,” Carroll, a former 49ers defensive coordinator, said on the video. “To break it down, our tackling system features shoulder tackling and a renewed emphasis to take the head out of tackling.

“We have found our style to be successful in the NFL and college, and we believe it can be employed on all levels. We are passionate about teaching this style of tackling because we desire to keep the standards of the game high and make the game as safe as possible.”

Rugby players do not use their heads to tackle. They don’t even wear helmets.

“Rugby tacklers are the best tacklers in the world,” Serra football coach Patrick Walsh said. “Shoulder tackling is a smarter way to tackle, not only for safety but to get a player on the ground.”

As with Carroll, Mountjoy said he would welcome imparting the fundamentals of rugby tackling to other American football teams.

“The idea is, ‘Don’t use your head as a missile,'” Mountjoy said in a statement released by Menlo School. “You cannot lead with your head and have no regard for your neck. Hands in front, track players with your hips and attach hands to your opponents’ core.”

As part of introducing Mountjoy to the team, Newton explained that the Seahawks were doing a similar type of tackling.

With head injuries a growing concern, coaching styles have changed at many schools. The California Interscholastic Federation, the state’s governing body for high school athletics, requires coaches to take an online concussion class.

“The information out there the last couple of years, it’s scary,” Terra Nova coach Tim Adams said. “It’s changed the way I coach. I come from an era where the coach would say, ‘Stick your head in there.’ We can’t do that anymore.”